Sarwar to stand as Scots Labour fast-track leadership poll

Scottish Labour will elect a new leader next month with frontrunner Anas Sarwar expected to launch his campaign to be the party’s chief tomorrow.

He is the frontrunner to replace Richard Leonard who quit on Thursday, just four months before the next Holyrood election.

The party’s Scottish executive committee met yesterday to fast-track the process for electing a new leader. The winner will be party’s seventh leader in 14 years and will be tasked with reversing years of decline that has seen Labour trail third in the polls to the SNP and Scottish Conservatives.

Mr Sarwar, a Glasgow MSP and former MP, was previously defeated by Mr Leonard in the party’s last leadership election four years ago.

He is expected to announce his decision to stand today and launch his campaign tomorrow.

A source close to Mr Sarwar said: “Anas has received support from across the Labour movement and is recognised as the leader who can rebuild our party and work to heal our country.”

MSP Monica Lennon, who successfully introduced a bill to tackle period poverty in Scotland, is also said to be considering putting herself forward for the top job, while interim leader Jackie Baillie is understood to have ruled herself out of the contest.

Candidates have until midnight tonight to declare their intention to run and will require support from at least four of the party’s MSPs or its sole Scottish MP Ian Murray by midday on Tuesday to be nominated.

Scottish Labour members and affiliated supporters will be able to cast their votes from February 9 until ballots close on February 26. The new leader will then be announced a day later.

Scottish Labour chairwoman Cara Hilton said the new leader would guide the party into May’s election “to carry Labour’s message and take the fight to the Tories and SNP”.

Former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish said the party had to consider changing its position on the constitutional future of the country. He said: “Let’s change the narrative by saying we will welcome a referendum on the future of Scotland, but offering an alternative, which is to reconstruct the union of the United Kingdom, which is not fit for purpose and is in peril.”

The party’s Scottish executive committee considered but ruled out having an interim leader until after May’s Holyrood election, followed by a leadership contest.